Montereggiano

 Montereggiano is unlikely to be on many people's tour lists for Tuscany. It isn't so much a Tuscan hill town as a village inside a fortress. And as you can see below it has some serious walls for such a small place.

For us it was a suitable place to stop for lunch, and also offered Thibault the chance to get out for a hike. And that is what we did first - having climbed up to the village the first thing we did was climb down the other side for a 5k hike down to an old monastery and back. This was a really nice walk. Weather was just right - not too hot not too cold - and the scenery was just beautifully Tuscan - walking through farmland.

This was the monastery - founded in 1001 as I recall. Things are just SO old in Tuscany...

But in a field to our left was this old ruin. I couldn't persuade Thibault to divert for a closer look - he was concerned we would get shot by a passing farmer for trespass.

The church wasn't exactly a match for Siena catherdral, but nice enough.

And then of course as headed back we got nice views of Montereggiano itself, in its entirety.

We found a really nice restaurant on the edge of the town with a covered terrace.

Delicious soup for my starter.

But we made an error for the main course. We just liked the idea of some real meat, so bought a T-bone steak to share. It was a massive chunk of meat, and really a bit too expensive for what it was. 

Suitably replenished (stuffed) we went on to explore what there was of the village, which really consists of a main square (well only square) and the walls. We bought tickets to climb the walls and also get entry to a little museum of the history of the town - which mostly just meant a history of Tuscan warfare.

We had assumed you could walk round the walls like in Lucca, but actually you can just get up to a small stretch at either side of the settlement. But this was nice enough to be honest - good views both outside and inside the village.

And the little museum turned out to be pretty interesting. Certainly worth the visit, especially if you like armour.

All in all a delightful place to spend a few hours, including lunch and hike.